The present invention relates to a probe inspection apparatus which inspects the electrical characteristics of one or a plurality of semiconductor elements, such as IC chips, formed on semiconductor wafers.
A conventional inspection apparatus of this type comprises a cassette mounting section which mounts a cassette storing a plurality of semiconductor wafers thereon, a loader section having tweezers for conveying the semiconductor wafers of the cassette mounting section, a prober section for inspecting the semiconductor wafers conveyed by the tweezers of the loader section, and a controller for controlling the movements of various mechanisms and members of these mounting, loader, and prober sections. The inspection apparatus also comprises a display unit having a display panel or screen which displays the inspection results of semiconductor wafers, the operation status of each of the loader and prober sections, and errors including operator manipulation errors and machine operation errors in this apparatus.
An operation panel or console is displayed on the display panel to operate drive various mechanisms and members through the controller. This inspection apparatus is operated through various operation or touch keys displayed on the operation panel. Each key has an operation content displayed in the language of the user country (the country in which the inspection apparatus is used). The operator can read the operation contents of the operation keys and touch required operation keys to perform various operations.
In the conventional probe inspection apparatus, the display panel is displayed in the language of the user country of this apparatus. For example, if the user country is Korea, the operation contents of the operation keys on the operation panel are displayed in the Hankul alphabet. If Japanese operators try to confirm the progress of inspection of semiconductor wafers, the operation status of each section, and the error status such as an operator manipulation error or machine operation error in order to perform the maintenance of the probe inspection apparatus, most Japanese cannot understand the Hankul alphabet. The operator must confirm the operation contents of the operation keys upon every operation in maintenance. Confirming the contents requires a comparison table or the like corresponding to the display contents. The operator must operate the apparatus in accordance with this comparison table, resulting in a long comparison work time and a long maintenance time. The operator cannot quickly take a maintenance measure such as an error measure.